Have Stomach Bug And Experienced Irregular Heartbeat. Worrisome

Posted on Sat, 1 Dec 2012

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 1 Dec 2012 Answered on

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 Last reviewed on

Question : i have a stomach bug at the moment contracted throught work i am a teacher, and this morning i experienced an irregular heartbeat, it was a fluttering feeling , i have had irregular heartbeats since i was 17 but this one lasted about 10 to 15 seconds, my hearbeat did not increase nor did i feel faint just felt anxious and worried

Answered by Dr. Dr. Prasad J (10 hours later)

Hi,

Thanks for the query.

Many individuals do suffer from irregular rhythm and not all are concerning irregularities. You did not mentioned if you were investigated in the past, but since you have had these for the last 17 years without much difficulty, it is more likely minor and not concerning ones.

In such circumstances, any kind of infections is known to increase heart rate (tachycardia). In a normal person this increase always has a regular rhythm - described as sinus tachycardia. However you've had fluttering/irregular heart beat lasting a bit longer than normal.

As the last episode was not similar to your previous episode ideally the next step is to get an EKG and Holter studies done. The reports will analyse the heart rate and rhythm and tell us how concerned we need to be.

Now that you are alright, there is no need to panic. Please proceed to fix an appointment with your cardiologist and get the aforementioned tests done.

Hope this suffices. Let me know if you have any doubts/concerns.

Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar